The good news is that i managed to travel from Cairo to Istanbul with my bike and keep it in one peace. The bad news is that it was not as easy as i think. I spent a lot of time learning about the best way to pack my bike and be prepared for traveling through Egyptair.

The trouble started very early on the travel day, i discovered that the box does not fit in the back of my car while it has the bike inside, i did a test before but with the empty box so i was able to squeeze it a bit and close the box, but with the bike inside i can’t push too much. However, i managed to use a rope to hold the door closed without actually locking it.

After arriving to the airport and passing through the X-ray check,i shrink wrapped the bike just for LE 30 ($8), it was a good investment, kept the box held together.

Finishing the boarding was the main challenge, i had only the bike as my only baggage piece in addition to a small carry-on bag. The Egyptair station stated that the bike will be charged 50% of an additional baggage piece. I showed him the email i receive from Egyptair and explained to him how this is not true. He checked with his manager and they finally accepted it, and kept a copy of the email. Surprisingly enough, the bike weight including the box, packing and all accessories and tools that i have included in the box did not exceed 20 KG!

And finally i’m done! Not quite yet. Arriving to Istanbul, you don’t know exactly what to do to receive your extra-big baggage. I didn’t receive it through the normal belt, i had to figure out myself the place to go in order to receive the bike along with other boxes, baby carriages, sports equipments, etc…

After waiting for 1.5 hours i finally received my bike but it didn’t look so good. the box looked like this by the time i arrived home:

 

Luckily when i opened the box, the bike was in a good shape:

 

 

I managed to Reinstall my bike:

 

Shiro was so curious about the bicycle, he wonders if this is his new toy!